Freight railroads see traffic boost

COURTESY PROVIDENCE & WORCESTER RAILROAD CO.
THE RIGHT TRACK: A Providence and Worcester locomotive pulls a train with mixed freight. Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. rehabilitated the Willimantic Branch last year to connect to the New England Central Railroad as part of the Great Eastern Route to Canada.
COURTESY PROVIDENCE & WORCESTER RAILROAD CO. THE RIGHT TRACK: A Providence and Worcester locomotive pulls a train with mixed freight. Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. rehabilitated the Willimantic Branch last year to connect to the New England Central Railroad as part of the Great Eastern Route to Canada.

Steel wheels are rumbling across southern New England in greater numbers again.
With gas prices high and both domestic and international trade picking up, freight railroads like the Providence and Worcester are seeing increased traffic and pushing into the black for the first time since the recession.
“Freight traffic is taking off,” said Frank Rogers, vice president of marketing for Providence and Worcester Railroad Co., which serves the Port of Providence and Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown. “You are seeing more activity in the medium to short haul – the 300- to 700-mile range – that used to be truck-intensive. There is more interest in moving rail shorter distances.”
If the current patterns hold, Quonset could soon be sending cargo by rail, as well as receiving it. And in Providence, boxcars could even start rumbling down Allens Avenue again to serve scrap metal and other exporters.
After losing $1.8 million in 2009 and $264,000 in 2010, Providence and Worcester made $935,000 in 2011, its first profit in three years, according to the public company’s annual federal filings.
The greatest increases in traffic came from automobiles, where the Providence and Worcester saw revenue rise 40 percent from 2010 to 2011. Auto shipments now represent 10 percent of the company’s freight revenue.
The Providence and Worcester still derives 43 percent of its freight revenue from moving chemicals and plastics (which include ethanol) and that revenue increased 5 percent from 2010 to 2011. Those increases helped to offset the steep, 53 percent decline in coal shipments caused by the continued move toward natural gas for energy.
In addition to the railroad, the resurgent automobile industry has been good for the Quonset Development Corporation’s Port of Davisville, which saw a record 5,691 total rail shipments in 2011, largely on the strength of the 3,881 car-carriers that arrived, more than three times the number that arrived in 2009. “Auto traffic was very slow during the recession, especially with General Motors and Chrysler in trouble,” Rogers said. “Railroads have a sizable fleet of cars [carriers] to move and 60 percent were parked. Now the auto industry has not only recovered, but sales are at a record pace.”
In May the North East Association of Rail Shippers held its spring meeting in Providence. The Providence and Worcester Railroad arranged a train trip from ProvPort to Quonset to show potential customers what the state’s facilities have to offer. The visitors included Heinz North America, Owens Corning, TJX Companies Inc., and the Port of New York.
“Hopefully that will lead to some opportunities,” said Steven King, managing director of the Quonset Development Corporation, about the chance to introduce the business park to corporate leaders who may eventually decide to locate or ship there.
Quonset has six pre-permitted parcels with freight rail access that King said the QDC is now actively marketing to companies that could benefit from being able to ship freight inexpensively to a facility.
Current Quonset companies that receive the most rail traffic include Toray Plastics, BBS Lumber, Seafreeze and Senesco Marine.
While looking to lure new companies with rail access, Quonset is also installing a new mobile harbor crane – part of a $22.3 million federal infrastructure grant – to increase the port’s capacity to handle short-sea cargo shipping.
Although short-sea shipping can compete with railroads for regional freight-transport customers, Quonset expects the intermodal capabilities of the new harbor crane will allow cargo to be imported by sea and then shipped inland from Davisville by rail. “We are working to get the pier ready for the mobile harbor crane and, once we get that, we can handle containers and open up some doors,” King said about maximizing Quonset’s intermodal capabilities.
One of the out-of-state visitors who made the trip from the Capital City to Quonset was North East Association of Rail Shippers Executive Director Joe Gearin, who said Providence appears to be a good, lower-cost alternative to shipping out of the big, East Coast container ports.
“They look at Boston and New Jersey, when they should be looking at places that could be cheaper,” Gearin said.
Gearin said Providence could be especially attractive for break-bulk cargo, which can be loaded piecemeal into boxcars instead of being moved exclusively in large containers.
While the southern Rhode Island seaports represent one end of the freight network, Providence and Worcester has also expanded its capacity to ship cargo to the north and into Canada.
In February, the Providence and Worcester formed an alliance with the New England Central Railroad that will provide an intermodal connection to the Canadian National Railway through the Great Eastern Route at East Alburg, Vt.
Under the agreement, the Providence and Worcester will be able to charge Canadian National customers a single price from East Alburg to any location on the Providence and Worcester system. Providence and Worcester has a separate connection to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
“Canada is New England’s largest trade partner and what we had was an underutilized route between our system and Canada that needed to be tightened up,” Rogers said. •

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